Calvin Board Wraps Fall Meetings

October 21, 2005 == MEDIA ADVISORY

The 31-member Calvin College Board of Trustees (BOT) wrapped up its fall
meetings on Friday, October 21, concluding two days of business that included
both plenary sessions and committee meetings and reports.

A quintet of new Board members took part in its first meetings, after having
been elected last spring. The five are: Ronald Baylor, a lawyer from Kalamazoo;
Mary Poel Kruis, a physician from New Mexico; Alyce Oosterhuis, a retired
professor from Alberta; Michelle VanDyke, a bank president from Grand Rapids;
and
Ruth Vis, a public affairs specialist from Grand Rapids.

For more info on the new Board members see:
http://www.calvin.edu/news/releases/2004_05/newbot.htm

The October 2005 meeting also marked the beginning of the tenure of a new Board
chair as Oak Brook, Ill., businessman Bastian Knoppers began his term in that
role. Knoppers takes over for Milwaukee businessman Milton Kuyers whose long
tenure on the Calvin Board and as chair concluded last spring. Knoppers is
joined on the Board's leadership team by new vice chair Jack Harkema, a
professor at Michigan State University who hails from Okemos, and returning
secretary Cindi Veenstra, a businesswoman from Kalamazoo now in her eighth year
on the Calvin Board.

One highlight for the Board was the endorsement of a Graduate Study Fellowship
for Prospective Minority Faculty Members for T. Yaw Bediako, a 2005 graduate of
Calvin who is pursuing a Ph.D. at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill.
That Fellowship supports Bediako in graduate school and then he will return to
his alma mater to teach upon the completion of his studies.

The Board also ratified a new endowed chair at Calvin - the James and Judith
Chambery Chair for the Study of Ethics in Business.

It also endorsed a number of faculty appointments (including an associate
professor of business, Leonard VanDrunen, who has over a decade of experience
in the business world on Wall Street and other locales) as well as endorsed
several administrative appointments and reappointments. And it approved a
budget of $82 million for fiscal year 2005-2006, while recognizing the very
effective budgeting that allowed Calvin to end the 2004-2005 fiscal year with a
balanced budget.

The Board also reviewed Calvin's mid-course review of the school's strategic
plan and commended Provost Joel Carpenter and his team for their work on that
review. Calvin is about halfway through its current five-year strategic plan.
In addition it recognized the work of Calvin President Gaylen Byker in that
effort as well as his leadership during Calvin's May 2005 Commencement, with
President George W. Bush as Commencement speaker, and during Calvin's 19-week
hosting of the Petra: Lost City of Stone exhibition.

Much of the Board's business work over the two days was spent in committees.
There are six standing BOT committees: Academic Affairs, Administration and
Finance and Information Services, Development, Enrollment and External
Relations, Student Life, Trusteeship. There also is an Executive Committee,
composed of members of the six committees. Each of the six committees
essentially mirrors an academic or administrative divisions at Calvin. Each
committee has a Calvin administrator who serves as an adviser.

In addition to meeting as committees the Board also had a chance to visit with
the Board of the Calvin Alumni Association and with the Calvin Parents Council,
a group of parent advisors to the college who closely mirror the make-up of the
student body as a whole.

The Calvin Board meets annually in October, February and May.

-end-
Received on Fri Oct 21 19:13:28 2005